Currently, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is applied as a broadband access technology in everyday life of people. As a result, the broadband technologies are applied widely, for example, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Various equipment types based on the Internet Protocol (IP) come forth to implement such applications or combinations of such applications. An IP terminal for applying the foregoing broadband technology in the household is known as a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). In practical applications, an Auto Configuration Server (ACS) configures the CPE automatically so that the CPE can work normally without being set by the user.
In order for the ACS to configure the CPE automatically, the CPE needs to provide a ConnectionRequestURL message. The connection request URL is generated by the CPE, and includes the IP address, port number and path of the CPE, for example, 201.12.34.56:8765/CPE path. Through this message, the ACS can communicate with the CPE actively. Specifically, if the ACS needs to set up a connection with the CPE, the ACS sends an HTTP Get request to the CPE through the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) according to the connection request URL. After receiving the request, the CPE authenticates the ACS, and initiates setup of the connection to the ACS.
To implement the foregoing procedure, the ACS needs to store the connection request URL sent by the CPE so as to send the request to the CPE anytime. In practical applications, the CPE can keep the port and path used by the connection request URL basically unchanged. However, for the IP address, in a DSL network, the Wide Area Network (WAN)-side IP address obtained by the CPE is probably allocated by a broadband operator dynamically. Consequently, the IP address varies on every occasion of dialup. In order for the ACS to send a request to the CPE anytime, the ACS server needs to store the latest connection request URL of the CPE. Therefore, the connection request URL needs to be carried in every message when the CPE communicates with the ACS so that the ACS can check and update the connection request URL of the CPE in time.
In the prior art, because the CPE needs to add the connection request URL into every message when communicating with the ACS, the processing load of the CPE increases, and the processing efficiency of the CPE decreases.